Have you ever started a meditation practice, but had a hard time keeping up with it? You really want to meditate everyday. You’ve even noticed in the past how it helped you feel calmer and more relaxed. But, for some reason you cannot stick with it. This is one of the most common experiences that fortunately can easily be overcome with some preparation.
A lot of times we don’t know or cannot imagine what lessons we need to learn to evolve into our best-selves.
Below are 8 steps that will help you create a daily meditation practice.
1. Create a meditation space
It’s important to have an area dedicated solely to your meditation practice. Utilizing other spaces in the home to meditate do not evoke the same feelings of calmness and tranquility as a designated altar or sacred space. One should feel drawn to sit there everyday. This place should invoke positive thoughts, inspire you, and help you feel uplifted. [Related: 8 Yogic Principles For Your Meditation Altar]
Additionally, having an intentional space where you go specifically to meditate helps create a habit. It requires effort to go and sit there each day. This act in itself helps to develop a daily ritual. The more personalized and accessible your meditation area, the higher the chances you will be motivated to meditate everyday. [Related: How To Make Your Home A Sacred Space]
2. Find a comfortable seated posture
Even before you begin meditating you should try your best to find a comfortable seated position. This can be a bit tricky because we may feel that we have found a relaxing position as soon as we sit down. Then, a few minutes go by and the physical aches and pains begin. We shift around to find another comfortable position for our body. This may continue the entire time you have designated for your practice. Finding a comfortable position that can be held for a certain amount of time is one of the most common challenges for people. I made this video below explaining the 5 important elements to keep in mind when sitting for meditation. [You can also click here to go directly to the video > 5 Elements to Sitting in Meditation on the Shanti Path YouTube Channel.]
3. Prioritize your practice
Just as you would schedule anything else, put your meditation practice on your calendar. Set a reminder on your phone. Write it into your planner. Meditation can be viewed as part of improving and maintaining our mental health. It has the potential to prevent diseases, depression, and stress. Strive to make it a part of your routine, just like eating and bathing. Make time for it. What may first seem like a sacrifice of our time will turn into an investment.
4. Find your why
Why are you meditating? You absolutely have to be able to answer this question for yourself. If you have not thought about the purpose behind why you are meditating, that will be the quickest way for your practice to fall apart.
Are you working toward a particular goal? What do you hope to gain from meditating? The reasons will be different for each person. However, you want to be sure that your answers do not set up any expectations. Because if they go unmet, then that will be reason enough for you to abandon your practice altogether. Rather, your answers should help guide your practice and motivate you when you feel like giving up.
You should steer clear from goals like, I want to be able to read minds in 3 weeks or get rid of all my anger issues in a month. Instead, you can set intentions such as, I hope to be calmer, or the best one in my opinion, I am open to whatever positive inner changes meditation will bring me.
A lot of times we don’t know or cannot imagine what lessons we need to learn to evolve into our best-selves.
Tip: As you continue your practice, you can check in with yourself every couple of weeks to see how you are feeling. Remember that a consistent meditation practice will bring the biggest changes. The more regularly you meditate, the deeper, permanent, and profound your transformation.
5. Meditate at the same time every day
You are more likely to stick with your practice when you meditate at the same time each day. Predictability breeds consistency. Just as every morning you wake up and brush your teeth by habit, meditating should also become second nature.
Additionally, having a designated time helps us better plan our schedules. When we do not have control over our time due to work and family obligations, having an alternative time to meditate also works. For instance, if you didn’t get a chance to meditate at your regularly scheduled time of 8AM, then you will meditate after work at 6PM.
If your schedule allows more flexibility, plan your day around your practice. For example, if I meditate every evening at 5PM, then I don’t make plans during that hour. See what happens. You may find your day runs more efficiently or that it requires some extra effort on your part to meet your other responsibilities. Experimenting and trying different things will help you find what works with your schedule.
Finally, expecting that you will meditate at a certain time everyday helps to prepare the mind for sitting. Once you start getting into the habit of meditating at the same time, whenever that time of day comes around, you will automatically go and sit. You are training the mind.
6. Start small
Instead of saying something out of spite, you take a moment to reflect and realize your hurt has taken over your words. You don’t purposely go out of your way to say something solely to make someone feel bad. You also realize when you are saying something out of ego, as a way to impress or prove your self-worth. You try to speak the truth in every moment, while remaining compassionate and kind.
7. Gradually build your practice
Instead of saying something out of spite, you take a moment to reflect and realize your hurt has taken over your words. You don’t purposely go out of your way to say something solely to make someone feel bad. You also realize when you are saying something out of ego, as a way to impress or prove your self-worth. You try to speak the truth in every moment, while remaining compassionate and kind.
8. Once you find something that works, stick with it.
This means finding a meditation technique that feels comfortable and relatively easy to practice. In the beginning, it will be a struggle to withdraw the mind from various forms of entertainment and focus on one thing. This is natural. However, after experimenting with different types of meditation and finding something that resonates with you, stick with it. Do not change meditation techniques every couple of weeks. Do it for as long as you can. The purpose of meditation is to increase our concentration and go deeper. We cannot do that if we are changing meditation tools often. If you begin to feel as though the particular meditation method you have chosen no longer works for you, then of course find one that does, but once you have, keep with it. There are known to be 112 meditation techniques, so there is something for everyone!
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